Um content providers are the ones that price it - if you go to the movies area there is a huge selection of heavily discounted content - many titles are 50 percent off - Grey is normally $20 - right now $10 in HD.

There aren't very many holiday titles on sale - maybe its because the content providers think they'll cash in on everyone wanting em now more than ever.

Anyways content providers price it and Apple does a good job promoting those that put things on sale.

Apple's pricing is right in line with (or better than) everyone else's.

Thanks for clearly stating the facts.

There are also other benefits for purchasing content on iTunes which I thorougly enjoy and value, such as iCloud support across all iOS devices and your Mac/PC, and your Apple TV, not to mention 1080p HD for about 90% of all HD content on iTunes, as well as 5.1 surround sound support for many titles. And for movies, we get Extras, which I don't think is even available on any other digital distribution platform to this day (correct me if I'm wrong).

Oh and another thing: Stuff on iTunes can be had at a discount too. You could take advantage of one of the many numerous ongoing sales on iTunes gift cards from places like Best Buy and Walmart which repeatedly mark them down as high as 20% throughout the year, especially the holidays.

But before all that, I do agree that iTunes content is priced rather competitvely, and Apple themselves hold numerous sales throughout the year as well (like now).

There are also other benefits for purchasing content on iTunes which I thorougly enjoy and value, such as iCloud support across all iOS devices and your Mac/PC, and your Apple TV, not to mention 1080p HD for about 90% of all HD content on iTunes, as well as 5.1 surround sound support for many titles.

1080p itunes content actually looks worse than 720p on everything besides animation. Their 1080p encodes are bitstarved at only a 15-20% increase over 720p which kills detail. The sad thing is people automatically think 1080p=better which isn't true in this case.

1080p itunes content actually looks worse than 720p on everything besides animation. Their 1080p encodes are bitstarved at only a 15-20% increase over 720p which kills detail. The sad thing is people automatically think 1080p=better which isn't true in this case.

I absolutely disagree. There is most definitely a noticeable difference. I understand that itunes bitrate is far less than blu-ray but when 1080p content first appeared on iTunes, there were a number of comparison articles from various sites, including Macrumors that confirmed increase in quality and concluded that Apple had used improved compression techniques to maintain similar file sizes. You can google it.

I have personally gone back and forth between 720p and 1080p content from a number of iTunes movies and TV shows on both plasma and LED displays and the increase in quality is apparent. It is more or less noticeable depending in the content in question, but as I mentioned from example, the Dark Knight looked amazing in 1080p. Definitely a step up from 720p.

1080p itunes content actually looks worse than 720p on everything besides animation. Their 1080p encodes are bitstarved at only a 15-20% increase over 720p which kills detail. The sad thing is people automatically think 1080p=better which isn't true in this case.

I've found exactly the opposite. Keep in mind that Apple receives a much better source to encode from than we do (Studio Masters) which are vastly superior to even Blu Ray disc, itself already compressed content. Thus they can encode a file with a lower bitrate ("starved" as you call it) which yields a better overall quality than a higher bitrate sourced from a traditional source like Blu Ray.

EDIT: And for OP, well, I saw the set for $19.99 in the stores too. So...

The proof is in the pics. The 1080p has less detail because the bitrate is too low, end of story. They are using High@4.0, CABAC, and 4 ref frames on the 1080p encodes but they aren't using some magical compression technique that isn't available to everyone else. In fact, the studios look like they are using quicktime encoder rather than x264 by looking at the mediainfo. If they used x264 and super slow settings they might be able to squeeze out a decent looking 1080p encode at 5000 kbps. There is a huge lack of detail on the 1080p screens. Faces look waxy and smooth on the 1080p while the 720p version you can see every wrinkle on their faces.

Just look at the first and last photos posted in this thread. On the Walking Dead comparison, her forehead is completely smooth and blurry on the 1080p while the 720p is crisp and detailed. On the last pic of Boardwalk Empire, there is no grain at all on the 1080p (it's supposed to be there). It has been completely stripped because of the low bitrate.